The Ella Sharp Museum is a historical museum located at 3225 4th Street in

Jackson, Michigan Jackson is the only city and county seat of Jackson County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 33,534, down from 36,316 at the 2000 census. Located along Interstate 94 and U.S. Route 127, it is approxi ...

. The original structure is a nineteenth-century farmhouse, the Ella Sharp House (also known as the Merriman-Sharp House), which was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1972.

History

In 1855, Abraham Wing of

Glen Falls, New York Glens Falls is a City (New York), city in Warren County, New York, Warren County, New York, United States and is the central city of the Glens Falls, New York metropolitan area, Glens Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 14,7 ...

purchased a large farm at this location, then on the outskirts of the city of Jackson. In 1856, Wing's daughter Mary married Dwight Merriman, and the couple assumed management of the farm, although Wing still owned it. The farm at the time included a small house, likely built in the early 1840s. The Merrimans immediately expanded this house by adding a

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

front section to it. In 1862, they expanded the house again, adding an Italianate tower and another small addition. By the 1860s, the farm was one of the most prosperous in the area, and the Merrimans were active in the community's social life. The Merrimans had four children, three of whom died young. The fourth, Ella, was born in 1857. In 1881, Ella married John C. Sharp, a lawyer who had served as Jackson City Attorney and as Prosecuting Attorney for Jackson County. In 1884, The Merrimans turned their farm over to John and Ella Sharp to move into town, and John discontinued his law practice to concentrate on farming. Under the Sharps management, the farm improved even more. John Sharp died in 1908, and Ella Sharp continued to manage the farm until her death in 1912. Ella Sharp bequeathed the house and farm to the city of Jackson to be used as a museum and park. The city of Jackson hired Winiford C. Trout, who began laying out the grounds of the park in 1915. The Ella Sharp Park was opened in 1916. Trout used the farmhouse for over 20 years as his residence, during his tenure as supervisor of the park. However, the Ella Sharp Museum did not open until 1965.

Description

The Ella Sharp House is a two-story brick structure with an attached three-story freestanding

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

tower topped with a wooden cupola. The house has a tetrastyle two story front porch. The windows are six over six units with stone lintels and sills and shutters. The surrounding yard is enclosed by a solid stone wall, constructed at some point prior to 1865. A carriage porch graces the south side-of the house. The Ella Sharp Museum contains other buildings in a surrounding historical complex. These include the 1875 Dibble School, a log cabin, and a country store.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Michigan

External links

Ella Sharp MuseumAbout Ella Sharp Park
National Register of Historic Places in Jackson County, Michigan Italianate architecture in Michigan Historic house museums in Michigan